My Linguistics Society and Genetic Engineering Society

2022年06月30日 Guestbook

In Year 11 I successfully run two academic societies in our school, namely the Linguistics Society and the Genetic Engineering Society. I am greatly fascinated by the study of these topics, and am willing to build a platform for students who have the same interest in them. After a year’s contribution, the societies were glad to win press attention from our schoolmates, as well as be highly praised by a variety of agencies: Genetic Engineering Society has won the title of “Star Society” in my school, whilst several school teams organised by it all won Gold Awards when participating in iGEM (International Genetically Engineering Machine). The Linguistics Society was recognized as the “Gold Society” by ITCCC, the committee of IOLC (International Olympiad Linguistics China), and I myself was also recognized as the “Gold Campus Ambassador”; meanwhile, many of our society members won national prizes and medals in the olympiad, some of which even successfully entered the national training camp (national top 30).

I am pleased to reach my original intent of running societies, as well as had my own abilities improved. In the following article, I would like to introduce my society experiences in detail.

The emblem of the Linguistics Society

The emblem of the Genetic Engineering Society

Background

Being in charge of the Vice President of the Genetic Engineering Society last year, I was determined to undertake the responsibility of its president when the former president decided to leave off her post, in order to use the resources and experience that I gained from the past to offer opportunities for students interested in genetic engineering as well as biological science to communicate and research together.

The Linguistics Society was set up by my friend Yibo Zhao and me at the beginning of this school year, through which we aim to stimulate more students’ interest in language study and hence better continue the tradition of our ‘Foreign Language School’. Meanwhile, as the winner of the National Silver Award in the International Olympiad Linguistics China, I am greatly willing to help the great number of students in our school who are interested in this subject or this competition but have no idea how to start learning and preparing.

After a year’s hard work, it finally turns out that all the efforts we made are worthy and meaningful. In the following article, I would like to introduce in detail the activities we held through the societies as well as the achievements we were glad to gain.

Activities and Achievements

1. Linguistics Society

During this school year, a series of activities were held by the Linguistics society. For instance, we prepared introductory lectures to help society members get a brief understanding of linguistics. Meanwhile, Zhao Yibo was dedicated to expanding the members’ horizons through a wide range of creative ways, including posting a message of “daily linguistics knowledge” in the society’s QQ group every morning, or compiling a society handout that includes recommended booklist and other learning materials. Apart from learning and discussing academic knowledge, we also designed several interesting and funny activities to arouse students’ curiosity and passion for linguistics in an easy way. For example, we invited the Lumos Club (a club composed of Harry Potter fans) to together hold a meeting analysing the linguistic phenomenon of the magical spells in Harry Potter. From the perspective of etymology and morphology, we parsed dozens of typical spells, after which participants also learned and practiced their pronunciation as well as gesture together. At the same time, we prepared fantastic posters of translated spells and their gestures for each participant. Thankfully, the meeting was quite successful, attracting plenty of students and winning high praise from them.

the introductory lecture

the link to the lecture: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1gF411a7Rh?share_source=copy_web&vd_source=b8454367b4642c5facffcc6bd2bc69a7

an example of the “daily linguistics knowledge” message

the content of the society handout

the recommended book list in our society handout

our joint activity with Lumos Club

Meanwhile, our society is also committed to helping members prepare for IOLC (International Olympiad Linguistics China) as well as other Linguistics Olympiads, and I was glad to be the person in charge of this program. My mentoring includes compiling a handout containing typical questions of different topics, such as phonetics, grammar and semantics. The sample questions were selected from the past papers of the national linguistics olympiads of different countries such as China, Russia, and the USA. I organized them in an order from simple to hard, making it easier for new learners to get started. Meanwhile, I dedicated a lot to writing clear answers and language rules to help students improve their linguistic logic (this part will be introduced in detail in the next article). Two months before the competition, I was mainly responsible for answering questions from the society members. Whenever they encountered problems, such as puzzles with no clue, or language rules that are different from their own answers, they could come to ask me and I was always willing to analyze with them together. What is worth mentioning is that, when I was answering questions, compared to letting students understand the answer to a particular question, I focused more on introducing the universal problem-solving methods and logic, such as morpheme comparison, “colour marking method”, “form method”, attention to the supplementary material, and so on, so as to help students improve their general skills of problem-solving.

Attracting the attention of ITCCC, the committee of International Olympiad Linguistics China, our linguistics society was glad to be offered five places of participants for APLO (Asian Pacific Linguistics Olympiad) representing China, while there are only 26 places offered to team China in total. To choose the best representatives, we held a school selection examination. The problems were set by Yibo and I. We also designed an answer sheet, then printed the papers out and bound them. (the content of the exam paper is shown below) During the examination, students are encouraged to write down their own language rules and we examiners assigned extra points to reasonable rules. In fact, when grading papers, I confirmed that the ‘language rules’ were truly a better indicator of a student’s logic and thinking ability compared to the ‘answers’ (because linguistic Olympiad questions are often so difficult that basically all students try to guess the answers for questions like matching and choice).

our school selection election

With pleasure, we were praised by ITCCC as a “Gold Society” whilst I personally was glad to win the “Gold Campus Ambassador” prize. The committee issued a pennant to us (as it is shown below) and invited me to hold a national presentation to share my experience and suggestions to other organizers of societies in China (the script, slide, and link of the speech was posted in another GitHub article). Our performance in the Olympiad competition is not bad as well, as many of our society members won the “highly distinction” or “distinction” award in IOLC, and some of them even successfully entered the national training camp. Meanwhile, our on-campus selection and training for APLO (Asian Pacific Linguistics Olympiad) has also cultivated the only medalist in the international competition representing China — Xu Haoyang.

the pennant of “Gold Society” by ITCCC

the poster of “Gold Campus Ambassador” by ITCCC

my presentation about society operation

2. Genetic Engineering Society

Genetic Engineering Society focuses on topics related to biological science, especially gene and genetic engineering. We held lectures and seminars during this school year, while we also organized a school team to take part in the iGEM competition (International Genetically Engineering Machine), which was pleased to win the global gold medal.

As a society operator, I was passionate about and committed to providing members with as many resources as I can, including platforms for academic discussion, opportunities to cooperate with other high schools and universities, channels for getting in touch with popular professors, chances for carrying out research and implementing experiments, and so on.
To be specific, I invited seniors — elder students who had mastered bioscience — to share their experiences and suggestions for studying biology as well as participating in the competition with newcomers, and built a QQ group so that they can keep in touch later on. Biological professors from Nanjing University were invited to deliver lectures as well, whom students were passionate to learn from and discuss with.

Apart from learning from speeches and lectures, our society members also dedicated a lot to conducting their own projects with the support provided by the society. Last year, after learning from a wide range of materials and discussing heatedly with teammates, our society members reached a consensus to carry out a project developing an efficient method to converge gutter oil (a kind of unhealthy oil frequently to be seen in Chinese restaurants, which is made from discarded cooking oil and kitchen waste) into high value-added polyunsaturated fatty acids like lino1`lenic acid. To reach the goal, they designed their own experimental apparatus and mathematical models using online software and conducted experiments in our school labor. After school, they also carried out a series of social work to ensure the usefulness and feasibility of their project. For instance, they gave out questionnaires on the Internet, collecting and accessing the public’s comments on the issue of gutter oil in China. They also interviewed officials from City Administration Bureau and Public Security Bureau in Nanjing, figuring out how the food regulatory institutions work and receiving suggestions on their programme from these experts. At the end of the day, they cooperated with students from other high schools and universities to improve the whole program and formed a team to participate in the IGEM competition (international genetically engineered machine) using their project of gutter oil converging. Eventually, they were glad to win an international gold medal.

website link of the team Worldshaper_Nanjing:
https://2021.igem.org/Team:Worldshaper-Nanjing

Worldshaper_Nanjing and their gold medal

Currently, we’ve been focused on the next iGEM competition. Pleasantly, more and more students had been attracted by our society and finally the society members willing to participate in this year’s competition were enough to form as many as three school teams.

Apart from normal activities like those held last school year, this year I managed to get in touch with a biological company that is willing to share their research data freely with one of our school teams focusing on the microorganism dye, and they welcomed the team to collaborate with them on the research as well.

We also cooperate positively with teams from other high schools and universities. On World Environment Day (three days after which comes World Ocean Day), for example, we held an online inter-school seminar with Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Minjiang College, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, and Northwestern Polytechnical University. I also invited other societies and clubs in my school including Brain Science Society, Marine Environment Protection Club and Insects Club to participate in the seminar. At this event, many famous professors from academia were invited to deliver presentations on related topics, including Professor Qin Yuan and President Lin Wenxiong of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Professor Tao Yi of Tsinghua University, Professor Wang Zonghua of Minjiang University, and so on. IGEM teams from participating schools also presented and discussed their research projects. The research topics chosen by each school team are distinct from each other, but were all interesting. For instance, the CHINA-FAFU team from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University focuses on the development of microalgal biofuels, while one of our school teams, Nanjing_NFLS, is expecting to degrade the secondary metabolites of cyanobacteria: algal toxins. Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that our other school team which didn’t present in the seminar, NFLS_Nanjing, is composed of society members dedicated to the composition of biological dyes, which would be safer and more sustainable compared to chemical ones.

In addition to winning prizes in competitions, our club has also gained a lot of recognition in our school. For example, we won the “Star Club” award and were invited to publish our activities and feelings in the school magazine. Below is the article I wrote and editted.

Our article in the school magazine

*After this year’s competition is over, I will also post the website links and awards of our school teams right below.

3. Summary

My two societies focus on distinct academic topics, but they have a lot in common. Apart from sharing ideas and studying knowledge, the two societies all choose to participate in national and international competitions to challenge and show themselves. Linguistics Society focuses on past paper practicing and training of problem-solving skills, whilst the Genetic Engineering Society encourages members to conduct their own scientific research, using the knowledge they gained to cope with the challenges existing in our real life. Both societies achieved great results in the competition, and more importantly, students gained a lot of knowledge and ability from the society activities, which is undoubtedly the best answer to the efforts of us society operators.

PHYSICAL GEOLOGY and OUR EARTH -- A comparasion of two online college courses that I took

2022年02月21日 Guestbook

COURSE 1: Our Earth: Its Climate, Process and History provided by the University of Manchester on Coursera

COURSE 2: Physical Geology provided by Nanjing University on MOOC

My Certificate

Lecture Structure

Our Earth:

WEEK1: Building Blocks of Earth’s Climate System
WEEK2: Formation, evolution, and process of the solid Earth
WEEK3: Water in Earth’s Climate System: Oceans, Atmosphere, and Cryosphere
WEEK4: Life, and its Effect on Earth’s Climate System
WEEK5: Build Your Own Earth and Conclusion

Physical Geology:

Course Format

Our Earth: The course is mainly taught by Prof. David M. Schultz, Professor of Synoptic Meteorology. In the vedio, he often teaches alone with his slide, while occasionally he also invites other relevant faculty members (such as geochemistry professors, or laboratory researchers) to introduce more specific content through their conversation.

Physical Geology: This course is a video of Professor Shu Liangshu’s class giving to the students at NTU.

Assessment

Our Earth:

Multiple Choices (Single Answer & Multiple Answer)
A self-designed model: This is not compulsory, but students can build models on their own under the instruction of videos.

Physical Geology:

Multiple Choices (Single Answer)
True-or-false Questions: Judgment on some important key points which are easy to confuse students
Discussions: Often related to key points taught in course, occasionally are open questions.

Other Resources

Our Earth: Provide an activity called BYOE (build your own earth), which is a vision that they have to engage students in understanding the controls on Earth’s climate. Their vision is for us students to selecting the features we want: distance from the Sun, tilt of the axis, location of continents, oceans and mountains, rotation rate, atmospheric composition, etc. We would enter these characteristics on a web page, push the “Go” button, and a climate model would run in the background and produce the climate on that world for us. However, such a vision is not currently possible with the speed of today’s computers. Hence instead, they preselected about 50 Earths, did the computer simulations already, and prepared plots of the simulation results for students to examine.

http://www.buildyourownearth.com/

Physical Geology: The whole set of courses mainly revolves around Professor Shu Liangshu’s “Physical Geology”, which is also the most commonly used compulsory textbook for all geological major students in China. At the same time, Professor Shu also provided his courseware, summary of knowledge points, and some exercises for students’ self-study.

My Feedback

In “Our Earth”, Professor David M. Schultz introduce plenty of basic knowledge of earth science to students in a simple and clear way. This was my first try of university courses as well as my first time studing earth sciences in English, and undoubtly the course successfully deepens my interest in this subject. The teaching environment of this course is lovely and friendly. The professor gives a variety of vivid examples to help us understand the abstruse knowledge. He also tries to create a lively teaching and studying atmosphere through his conversation with other professors or showing us around the school laboratory in the video, etc. After taking this course, I re-understood how the Earth works and its characteristics in a systematic way. Meanwhile, I also realized that the university curriculum will provide children with more space for independent inquiry than the high school ones, as the teacher will not provide a large number of questions for exam or practice. In addition, I was fascinated by the final model designing. Even though it’s not compulsory, I still find this model very meaningful as it allows me to understand in a more intuitive way how different propertys affect a planet’s climate patterns.

In contrast, the “Physical Geology” course is more traditional. Professor Shu introduced us a great amount of basic principles of earth sciences (especially geology), which is relatively in-depth and professional. What attracted me most was that, after introducing almost every key point, Mr. Shu would show a large number of pictures related - which were all taken by himself during his field trip of travelling. Through this, I realized that the knowledge we learned in textbooks can be applied to explain a variety of phenomena in real life, and perhaps this is also one important meaning of studying geology and geography. I also look forward to the day when I will be able to apply principles and theories to my daily life, and explain the world with the theories I have learned.

HOW CAN SHENYANG BID FOR THE OLYMPIC GAMES?

2021年12月28日 Guestbook

HOW CAN SHENYANG BID FOR THE OLYMPIC GAMES?

– a city case study in foreign teacher’s class

We have a weekly lesson with a foreign teacher who will share some of the local culture and helps us to improve our English and thinking.

This year our foreign teacher, JBrown, asks us to do a final assignment which was a 5-minite group presentation. In this presentation we will be representing a Chinese city applying for the right to host the Olympic Games in 2036. The content was free to play with, but of course, the most important thing was to present the merits of the city. After the presentation, our teacher will choose the city that he judges to be “successful in its bid” and will give the group an A* – the highest score in the class.

The city was not chosen freely by us students. JBrown had prepared some pieces of paper with the names of big cities in China for us to draw - and we needed to be on behalf of the city we had drawn. Many students were satisfied that they had drawn political and economic centres or global mega-cities such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chongqing. Unfortunately, the city we drew was Shenyang - a very invisible provincial capital city facing all the problems that come with post-industrialisation. All of our friends persuaded my teammates and I to ask JBrown for re-drawing (we had one chance to re-choose, while all the other students in the class who had drawn Shenyang had all re-drawn other cities). However, we did not use this opportunity. After discussion, we decided that the Olympics did not have to be held in the most economically developed cities, and that each city had its own unique advantages. What we needed to do was to explore the city’s characteristics in depth and give it meaning to host the Olympics.

It is also because our city does not have the same economic advantages as the others, so instead of simply describing its economic development as a showcase of the city’s strengths, as other students did, we chose to take a holistic approach (e.g. geography, cultural support, venue arrangements, what legacy the Olympics will leave for the city, etc.). We searched a lot of information and images when researching the advantages of Shenyang’s location, and referred to the statements and plans of many cities that had successfully bid for the Olympics in the past when writing the programme and the significance of the event. Finally, we consolidated all the ideas and constantly revised our language presentation to try to make our presentation more organised and logical. Our slides, part of our presentation, will be attached to the text. In the end, our city came out on top and ‘successfully bid for the Olympics’, winning first place in the class.

The other students complimented our group afterwards, saying, “They were so good that in their hands, even Shenyang could successfully bid for the Olympics.” We were really happy, not only because we got an A*, but also because we did our best to complete the case study despite not drawing the most favourable city, and eventually ended up with a surprising result. In the process, my teammates and I also learned how to work together, how to analyse the problem, how to find the perspective of the case study and how to find reference sources.

Shenyang’s bidding for the Olympic Games

produced by Anna, Mckenna, Sherry, Fiona

The Olympic Games is an event of great importance, and it’s our pleasure to compete for the opportunity to host the Games in 2036 here as the representatives of Shenyang. We are going to introduce our city’s strengths from various aspects.

socio-economic advantages

As the largest central city in northeast China, Shenyang can no doubt provide sufficient financial support for the game.

Also, riching in natural resources, Shenyang is one of the most important industrial centres in China. Its recently flourished high-tech industries is also greatly helpful to provide technical support for the construction of Olympic venues and the arrangement of sporting events.

Furthermore, Shenyang is a transportation hub in China. Many important railway trunk lines pass through it, and the Liao River facilitates its water transport.

location

Apart from the socio-economic advantages, Shenyang’s location is very suitable as well. It has the temperate monsoon climate with average summer temperatures of less than 30 degrees. At the same time, there won’t be frequent rainy days. This comfortable weather can allow athletes to perform at their best.

What’s more, situated in the Northeast Plain, Shenyang has a flat and wide-open terrain, which makes it possible to provide concentrated venues.

Support

Sustainability

Legacy

We promise that all of these infrastructures will continue to fulfill their missions after the Olympic Games —- that is to boost the economy and sports industry in Shenyang. We hope that Shenyang can be known to the world not only for its industrial development, but also for its dynamic image of a “sports city” through the 2036 Olympic Games. We promise that all stadiums will be open to the public after the Games, providing more space and facilities for citizens to do exercise. The improved transportation network and airport will help to enhance the level of communication and collaboration between Shenyang and other cities in the world, converting Shenyang into a cosmopolitan city. Besides, the measure of adopting renewable energy will be stuck to and spread out. We have drawn up a detailed and gradual scheme for the application of renewable energy in transport, medicine, sports industry and many other fields, making Shenyang a green city. We believe that the combination of the Olympics and Shenyang will not only enhance the city’s image, but also breathes life into this historical sports event. As the capital city of Liaoning province, Shenyang will play a leading role in Northeast China to develop sports industry and spread Olympic culture in the process. Moreover, Shenyang will serve as a model for developing countries to raise their international status, encouraging more industrial cities to take part in sports events and broadening the value of the Olympics.

Shenyang has made full preparation for the 2036 Olympic Games, dedicated to holding them with credibility, support and sustainability. We believe that the encounter between the Olympics and Shenyang will burst out a brilliant spark, which will be unforgettable in the history of the Olympic Games and the history of globalization.

A visit to the Museum of Paleontology

2021年12月22日 Guestbook

Last week was Science and Technology Week of our school, during which the Biology and Geography teaching and researching group offered some of our students a chance to visit the Nanjing Museum of Palaeontology, and I was lucky enough to get the opportunity. That weekend, our Chinese teacher assigned an informal essay, and I wrote the reflections on the visit and my thoughts on studying Geography. Later, that essay received a quite high mark - I realised from reading my Chinese teacher’s comments that her husband is a geography teacher, and she got touched by my enthusiasm. I never think I’m a good writer or a profound thinker, but I did want to translate and post this article here, as a way of recording of my little reflections as I am growing up.

A visit to the Museum of Paleontology

Fang Ziyan Class 7

Cold front crossing.

Stratocirrus.

The sunlight lovingly linger on the autumn day.

I.

In May of Grade 10, I finally decided that I wanted to apply for a Geography major in the future – I am always attracted by a variety of subjects, hence it was a little bit hard to make my final choice. However, the deeper I study about Geography, the more I felt I was suited to it, and then it became an overwhelming passion, affirming my determination. Within the past five months, I had read several books and accumulated a certain amount of knowledge. This museum visit organised by the our school’s geography and biology teaching and researching groups was a even good opportunity to practise.

I had memorised so many theories, but it wasn’t until I stood in front of a whole wall of fossils of different shapes and colours that I understood the meaning of the words in black and white. For example, I recognised the rounded spiral shape of ammonite, but I didn’t know that it had evolved from hornblende: the long, pointed shell of hornblende made it not easy for them to balance themselves, so the pointed shell eventually developed into a flat shell of ammonite. What’s more, I had of course remembered that the ammonite was the index fossil with a fast rate of evolution and a short existence time, but till asking the mesuem docents I learned its specific reason for not surviving the Cretaceous extinction is that the acidic seawater made the calcium brittle and caused it to become less resistant to pressure.

From being a little kid hanging out in museum galleries and illustrations in encyclopaedias, to choosing geography as future major and learning a certain amount of related knowledge, to now hanging out in museum galleries again with a few geoscience-loving kids with me and asking a series of questions to the docents – What I want to say is, your vision determines your choices, and your choices again determine your vision.

II.

Step ahead into the second year of high school, students around me began to get anxious. There is always endless homework and frequent exams. For those of us who are studying in ordinary Chinese high schools and want to apply for foreign universities, it is really challenging to not only follow the courses of gaokao (the college entrance examination of China) but also learn foreign high school courses on our own. In addition, although I am deeply passionate my major, geography, there are quite few people around me who apply for it, hence sometimes I would feel a little lonely.

However, interestingly, it’s not like what people always say – “You might find solace from something other than studying, e.g. travalling, playing video games, to ease your anxiety.”

Sometimes… the solace comes from your major itself. No matter how you grumble the boring life you might face in order to successfully apply for it, if you love it enough, it will embrance you back with its own little philosophies - as an antidote to your anxiety.

Walking around the museum, I gained new insights into many familiar knowledge. I came up with the five biological extinctions, which were always followed by an explosion of new creature. I came up with the Milankovitch Cycle and Wilson Cyclone – everything separate and emerge again and again. I came up with the red junipers on top of the mountains, sweeping the clouds from the fog and sleeping on the moon for thousands of years; the sands of the desert, with the sun rises and the moon sinks, only to be silent; the basalt cape, with the tide rises and falls, the waves open and close, only to stands still… Why worry that there are no companions? Why be anxious about the boring and tiring endless days?

III.

There are times when I want to ask myself, where do my passion for the subject of geography come from?

When I was a child, my grandfather was always loved to study the map of China, and every time I went out on public transport he would passionately teach me to recognize and remember the traffic routes. Kindergarten overs early every day, so he would always take me around Nanjing on his bicycle to various places of interest. I also remember that my favourite set of books as a child was the Encyclopaedia my mother bought me, which talked about the earth and the universe, with fabulous pictures of ancient creatures. Also, every summer and winter, I always had the opportunity to go back to my hometown in Anhui, to embrace the mountains and fields, to appreciate the fireworks under the stars, and to listen to the adults in the village chat happily about the minutiae of their lives: how the weather affected the harvest, how much money they made from selling vegetables, which mountain to climb tomorrow, and whose field was going to be used by the town for constructing buildings. Perhaps this is why I had more experience of enjoying the nature and living in the town than other city children. Also, another possible reason is that, my dad is a crazy travel lover. There’s no denying that the days spent travelling with him to Europe, the USA, Japan and Korea and many of the provinces in China have become a profound background of my life.

IV.

On the way back to school, sky is clear, clouds are light, trees are bright yellow. The wind blows, and the ginkgo leaves fell in a shallow warm sun.

The ginkgo is the seven-million-year-old ginkgo.

The sun is the eternal sun.

WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING? A speech in English class

2021年12月05日 Guestbook

I delievered a 20-minute speech in our English class this Thursday. Though it was a really long speech, my classmates listened very carefully. After the speech, my English teacher asked them several questions to check whether they have learned anything it. Surprisingly, many of my classmates could repeat the framework and even content of my speech, which made me both moved and pleased. Some of my friends wanted me to send my powerpoint slide to them online because they got pretty interested in this topic and hoped to do some further study.Though I don’t think my research is comprehensive enough for the limited preparation time, helping classmates broaden their horizons and arosing their interest in this important topic was truly a satisfactory thing for me. The following is my speech and PPT slide.

GLOBAL WARMING

Good afternoon everyone. The 2021 Nobel Prize in physics amazed phycis lovers all over the world. It is the first time that Nobel Prize in physics was given to meteorology. You can see here that two of this year’s prize winners are meteorologists, which means who study the whether system and climate system. The Nobel committee’s decision seems can prove that climate change has become one of the severe issues affecting human society.

Today I would like to introduce you the main cause of climate change——global warming. I’m going to explain how global warming is formed, what crises it will lead to, and our solutions to this issue.

1. Cause of global warming

First let’s see how global warming is formed. For 2.5 million years the Earth’s climate has fluctuated, cycling from ice ages to warmer periods, but in the last century the planets’ temperature has risen unusually fast. Scientists believe it’s human activity that’s driving the temperatures up, a process known as ‘global warming’.

Ever since the industrial revolution began, factories, power plants and eventually cars have burned fossil fuels such as oil and pull, releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere.

These greenhouse gases trap heat near the earth through a naturally occurring process called the greenhouse effect, which means they trap some of the energy the earth radiates and reflect it back, warming the earth. Scientists now believe that the greenhouse effect is being intensified by the extra greenhouse gases that humans have released.

2. Crises caused by global warming

Some of you might ask, it’s normal for the temperature to have a slight change. We’ve experienced colder days and hotter days. A little bit of temperature rise seems won’t affect us that much.

However, that’s not the case. The speed of warming is unequal for different places on the earth, and among which the fastest ones are the polar areas. According to the polar amplification effect, if the earth’s temperature increase 2℃, then the temperature in polar areas will increase at least 10℃. You could see here the change of area covered by ice in north pole from 1975 to 2020.

As the ice melts, sea level rises, flooding coastal areas around the world. And we know that coastal areas are often important trade centers, for instance Shanghai and New York. What’s more, permafrost, which means frozen soil, will also melt and emit more carbon because there are methane(CH4) inside, which is another kind of greenhouse gases. Thirdly, as ice melts, the inhabitat for animals in polar areas is rapidly decreasing, and hence some species including the polar bear would face the danger of extinction.

We could see that all these three crises are caused by the rising temperature. However, does global warming only mean increasing temperature? Let’s see another example.

In February 2021, in the midst of rapidly warming global temperatures, an exceptionally severe cold wave hit large parts of North America, from Canada to Northern Mexico, leaving 10 million people without power. It was the coldest February In the U.S. in more than 30 years. Donald Trump posted a Twitter to complain about the cold wave and question the global warming. For example, he said:”windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. What the hell is going on with Global Warming? Please come back fast, we need you!” He never believes in the existence of global warming, and he thinks ‘global warming’ and ‘extreme cold’ are totally unrelated things. However, that’s not the case.

In fact, it is the global warming that lead to this extreme cold. Actually, global warming will cause something called Unusual Planetary Wave Patterns, you can understand it as the distortion of climate system. And hence global warming will not only leads to extreme hot, it will also lead to extreme cold, extreme dry, extreme wet, etc. This theory is very complex and it’s hard to explain, but I will give you some examples to help you understand better.

We know that Brazil is in South America and there is a famous forest called Amazon rainforest. Rising temperatures resultes in less rainfall brought by the ocean currents, hence Brazil is getting drier and drier. Drought, high temperature, rainforest——what would happen? Forest fire. This is a picture of South America in 2019, the red point indicating there was a forestfire.

Circumstance in Australia is very similar. The four-month fire killed 3 billion animals and set Australia’s highest temperature on record for three days in a row.

Now let’s see the extreme cold in America. We mentioned that global warming can lead to disorders of the climate system, and among which one consequence is the spread of cold air over the Arctic. (This may be a little difficult to understand. You don’t need to understand why, it’s just a result.) What’s more, we know that there are mountains on the east and west sides of North America, and there is a plain in the middle, so the cold air from the Arctic does not spread on the west-east direction. As a result, cold air is concentrated in the center areas herr, leading to the extreme cold in the United States in February.

We’ve discussed about two kinds of crises that global warming may result in —— firstly, the rising temperature and its further consequences shows that global warming is part of climate change; secondly, global warming is also a cause of climate change as it leads to the distortion of climate system. Last but not least, I want to say that global warming is a cause of further global warming as well. As ice melts, rocks are exposed, which is easier to absorb heat. Permafrost melts, emitting methane(CH4), which is another greenhouse gas. AS global wildfire season extends, there are less trees and hence less carbon will be absorbed…… And all of these consequences will again intensify the global warming.

3. How to deal with global warming?

Finally, let us discuss how to deal with global warming and climate change. I don’t know whether you’ve ever followed the climate conferences, but at least for me, sometimes the climate conference is not like a meeting, it’s more of a quarreling. Every country has its own opinions. Last year, the United States even formally withdrew from the Paris Agreement. As global warming is such a severe issue, why it is so hard for countries to reach a consensus on solving it?

Nowadays an important way to deal with global warming is to limit carbon emissions. Carbon emission permits are given to each country according to their national circumstances. If the country doesn’t run use up all of their carbon permits, they can sell them to other countries; on the contrary, if a country’s carbon emission permit is not enough to use, then it has to buy from others.

In fact, developing countries, for example China and India, are currently the countries which emit the most carbon because of industrial production. On the other hand, developed countries have entered the post-industrial era with less carbon emissions, as they don’t need such large scale of industrial production and they have also developed some green technologies. For the developing countries, limiting carbon emissions actually means limiting development. But the developed countries won’t be restricted in this way. They can even sell permits unused to other countries and hence gain profit.

Thirdly, some island nations and a few coastal countries in Africa have a different idea: they are extreme environmentalists. They don’t have the need for industrial production, right? Some of them are in still in primary society or mainly depends on agricultural development. Hence they are also not afraid for the carbon emission limitation. However, these countries are close to the ocean and can easily be flooded once sea levels rise, so they are not satisfied with the current temperature target set by the United Nation(2℃) and are always requiring for a stricker target, 1.5℃ for example.

4. Summary

To summarize today’s speech, we have learned that it is human activity that caused global warming, and there are several crises that it may lead to. Firstly, global warming will directly result in rising temperature, which is part of climate change. Secondly, global warming is also a cause of climate change as it leads to the distortion of climate system. Lastly, global warming is a cause of further global warming as well. However, each country has its own idea on how to deal with this severe issue. Though fighting with global warming might be an arduous journey, I am still confident that us human-being have the wisdom and the ablility to save ourselves. That’s all of my speech, thank you for your patient listening.

A national speech about Linguistics Society Operation

2021年11月26日 Guestbook

This term I have set up a linguistics club with Yibo Zhao. He is the president and is responsible for the production of posters and the preparation of linguistics presentations. I am the vice president and am also the national campus ambassador for linguistics, responsible for leading the club menbers to practice for the International Olympics Linguistic and writing summaries and reports on our activities to be submitted to the committee of IOLC (International Olympics Linguistic China). Our club has been well received by the students since its inception and we have held many successful events, which has helped us to maintain our first place in the national ranking of clubs. At the end of November, the IOLC committee invited me to give an online talk to linguistics club leaders across the country about my experience and that of our club. I then completed a speech draft below, which includes my thoughts on running a society, some of the activities I have organised with Yibo, and some event references for other club presidents.

(p.s. I have posted the link of my sharing speech and the video of our club activity and the end of this article. My powerpoint slide has also been appended.)

Hello everyone, I am Fang Ziyan, the vice president of the Linguistics Society of Nanjing Foreign Language School. Its my pleasure to make this speech here. Our club has just been established this year, so as a founder of a new club, I am willing to share with you about some of the experiences I have gained during my exploration.
There will be a number of specific activity design references in my sharing, but before that, I would like to say something about the underlying logic of club operations.

(A) The Underlying Logic of Society Operation

I often reflect on a question. Why do we always write flowery hanrangue to present our establishment purpose when applying for the club, but often feel that these sonorous and powerful words look kind of hollow and unrealistic? Why do we always initially plan the school year club activities with fully enthusiasm, but eventually have to face the frustration that the gap between our imagination and the reality is too large?
I think that many society operators will encounter such confusion. So today, I want to start from the underlying logic of society operation and discuss what a truly “excellent” student society should be like.

First, let us return to the definition of a society. What we call a club, or a society, is actually an organization formed by people who have certain common characteristics and hobbies. Here, there are two key words, the first is “common characteristics” and the second is “people”. When we design activities, our ideas often start from this “common characteristics”, thinking about which linguistic-related activities can be organized, including field research, lecture, project study, etc. However, we often find these ideas unrealistic for senior high students to carry out. Hence now, let us change our ways of thinking, from the aspect of “people”—— those who are interested in our society, and the schoolmates around us. What kind of needs do they have? What kind of knowledge and experience are they yearn for through linguistic club activities?

Take our school for example. We faced an important question when we planned to established the society: Who is this society for? There are roughly three types of students in our school: students going abroad for college study, students who will be recommended by school to language majors in top universities in China, and students preparing for the college entrance examination. Our current president Zhao is students applying for language majors, and I am a student preparing to go abroad. Zhao said, our school’s recommended students will learn English, German, French, Japanese or other minor languages in college, however many of them are unfamiliar with their future majors because they often dedicate a lot to mathematics, physics or chemistry competitions in order to get the qualification to be recommended by our school. Hence Zhao suggested that we can popularize some knowledge that these students have better to master or are about to learn in the university for them through this society. On the other hand, as a student who have participated in the International Olympics Linguistic, I deeply understand the difficulty of preparing the competition alone, not to mention the fact that Nanjing Foreign Language School has loads of IOL contestants but no communication platform is there for them. Hence, I hope to provide some sharing to the students preparing for IOL. After discussion, Zhao and I decide that instead of working separately, it is better to collaborate and to establish a comprehensive club. “Provide services for more students”, this is also the concept we emphasized when propagating. Look at our posters here. I think this is also the reason why we have won the favor of many students just at our beginning of establishment.

In addition, considering that apart from ordinary high schools like us, there are many representatives of international schools here listening to my speech, now I am going to introduce more detailly about how we can classify students going abroad and provide corresponding services. We know that most students who plan to go abroad are always certain about their application direction, i.e. what major they would like to apply for. Therefore, they will prepare for competitions and activities in a targeted manner during the first and second grades of high school. And from my perspective, the linguistics club can not only provide opportunities for students who want to learn linguistics, but can also be an excellent platform for conducting interdisciplinary research. For example, when we established the club, we planned to hold a field research during the winter vacation this year. There are currently two ideas for the content of the activity. One is to investigate the dialect changes of the residents of Mount Mei in Nanjing after they moved from Shanghai, and the other one is to investigate the relationship between adjectives describing the dishes on the restaurant menu and their prices. When considering the question of how to promote these reseach projects, I upheld the concept of “Provide services for more students” and designed a set of research propositions for students interested in different majors, for example:

Biology: the physiological differences of dialect, the physiological determinants of phonetic phenomena;
Computer and data statistics: how to obtain and analyze the corpus;
Geography: the geographical factor causing the phenomenon of regional phonetic differentiation;
Sociology, history: the evolution of dialects and the social problems it caused;
Economy: the relationship between adjectives and prices on the restaurant menu;
Politics, national customs, laws: how to formulate policies to protect dialects, etc.

I hope that by following this logic——proceeding from the actual needs of the students in your school——you will never be troubled by your unrealistic ideas any longer. And of course, if you don’t have such troubles currentely, I hope my sharing can help you broaden your ideas of society operation and gain more inspiration~

(B)Reference for the Design of Specific Activities

Translation activities: As a linguistics society, there must be quite a few multilingualists here. Why not take advantage of this by inviting friends who are good at particular languages to undertake some worthwhile translation activities? For example, our society president Zhao has been in contact with Maggie O’Farrell, a famous British fiction writer, and has obtained non-commercial use translation rights for her 2020 fiction “Hamnet” in the name of expanding the horizons of Chinese rural children. However, you know that sometimes it might not be easy to get access the right of translation, so here I have some extra advice. You can download quality viedos from YouTube or Facebook, manually translate them and post them on domestic video channels, as intelligent translation subtitles are not yet widely available. Certainly, if you willing to set current smart translation technologies as your research direction, that would be another great idea. There are vlogers on bilibili and Zhihu sharing such technologies, you can compare them and choose the one you consider as the most suitable to use or promote~

Field research: Linguistics is not only about learning languages, many social phenomena are also worth researching. The two fieldwork proposals I mentioned at the beginning mey serve as reference if you would like to organise relative activities. To introduce a little more details here, what we intend to do is to participate the fieldwork activity together, including interviewing, writing and distributing questionnaires, etc. Once we have collected the data and resources, we can choose different research topics as our interest, then integrate and analyse the resources and materials to complete our papers or reports. I believe that this experience will be very helpful in improving our academic skills, which is highly valued by the top schools all around the world, no matter what majors the paticipants are planning to take in their future studies.

a guide material for beginners && a organised set of questions: Those of you who have participated in the competition will understand that exercising is a crucial part of the International Olympiad Linguistics. Though some of the past papers can be found on the internet, it is difficult to find (free) beginner’s guide material or exercise with organised topics. For students preparing individually, take me myseld for example, last year when there were no clubs or seniors at school to guide me, solving and figuring out the questions on my own was a quite difficult process, as it was sometimes impossible to gauge the difficulty of the questions as well as myy level of solving problems, and I didn’t even know what past questions are proper to choose to practice. I found that many of other IOLs had similar experiences, so I came with an idea that with our experience in the competition, we can set up a guide material for beginners and a organised set of questions for our members, so that their learning will be much easier and more enjoyable.
In terms of the organization of the set of questions, my plan is as follows.
① In the first semester I will offer the club members an introductory training on the basic linguistics competition questions, with a frequency of one question a week.
② At the beginning of the second semester I will provide an integration of questions of various categories covering grammar, syntax, lexicography, phonetics, phonology, semantics, numerical questions, odd questions and teamwork questions, etc. The training will last for about a month or two, and may be accompanied by inviting previous contestants or linguistics-oriented undergraduates to deliver relative speeches or lectures on the topic.
③ I will organise a mock test and a team selection test for the competition prepation stage after March next year. All participants of IOLC from the whole school (not only limited to club members) can come and take part in the test, which can provide a reference for team formation and preparation.

Academic material integration: I often envy some of the best long-established societies for their own unique academic material integration, which is the best treasure to pass on the next generations of members. The core club members update and enrich this integration with their knowledge, and then pass it on from one generation to the next, who can then pleasantly enjoy the wisdom of their predecessors. As a budding society leader, I cannot say for certain whether our academic pack will be in existence for a long time period in the future, but if you are willing to start this project as we do, I am very glad to share some basic ideas for you.

This is the table of contents of the handbook edited by our President for the would-be language students. As you can see, it starts with a basic introduction to sub-disciplines of linguistics, including phonology, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, etc. As many of our students will become English major students, hence he then introduces some specific research to Chinese language and English language. If you are preparing for the Linguistics Olympiad, you can also modify this part to integrate some of the problem-breaking ideas of the competition questions, for example, when solving numerical questions you should pay attention to the binary, while when you are solving grammar questions you should start with a comparison of the same morphemes in the corpus, etc. Finally, you could add some interesting extra topics such as psychology and sociolinguistics, dialects, or even how to get a hign mark in language exams (e.g. TOEFL and IELTS).

(C) Academic Resources and Access

Past papers: itccc official wechat
Scientific articles and videos: bilibili zhihu
Other materials: Senior Group/Junior Group sample questions and handbook, Chen Run’s “Beginner’s Guide to Linguistics”, NPCSC Linguistics Club competition questions, North American and Russian past papers ……
The following is the book list that we have compiled in our handbook for would-be language students, in which there are textbooks from top schools in China and around the world, as well as the recommended ones.

So, in what way should we share academic materials or promote and hold events? Here I have provided some ideas for you. For example, we can advertise through the club QQ group, the school public website and by putting up posters around campus. Regarding the format of the event, we can design offline presentations as well as organise some online lectures, so that even if some students cannot participate in the activity because of other arrangements of their own, they can watch the playback again later on. Finally, the easiest way to share your club’s activities is to upload group files and group albums, or, if you have a club WeChat number, ask a dedicated student to run it. In addition, uploading to online platforms such as bilibili and Zhihu is also a great option. For example, I uploaded the video of our last event to bilibili, and here is a screenshot of one part of it. As you can see, the site has a ‘navigation’ feature, meaning that I can post videos with the start time of each section, so that interested students can watch them as they are needed, which is really convenient.

(D) What can you gain by running a society?

Finally, I would like to get back to the underlying logic of running a society and discuss what the time spent working for a club can bring to you.
I know that actually not all of you are enthusiastic about fulfilling the ‘purpose’ of your application and doing more for the linguistic society, or perhaps you even started out with the idea that starting a club would bring you glory and add colour to your personal statement. But I think you definitely understand that, a full and authentic club experience will be greatly beneficial to your further education and even your life.
As the teacher in charge of our school’s Union of Societies once said, running a society is like running a company. At the beginning you need to define your goals and plans, you need to submit ‘cumbersome’ documents; you need to spend a lot of effort on publicity, during which you may face the helplessness of not being able to recruit enough members; during the process of operation you may encounter differences on ideas with other core members, and only through discussion and concessions can you reach a consensus; you may find that your initial ideas are too idealistic, and the reality forces you to revise or even abandon them.
You may suffer from sacrificing a lot during these days, but I hope you could understand that what you will gain in the end will not only be proficiency in organisation, but also an experience of meeting constant frustration and the grind of reality.

I hope that today’s speech has provided you some useful tips and ideas on how to run your society. Finally, I would like to thank you all for your patience to listen my long speech, and I wish all of you can gain a lot during operating a linguistic society!

The link of video of the sharing speech is:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/lNJkJ-EkKsrSCof8yHfFTg

The link of video of our last event:
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1gF411a7Rh?share_source=copy_web

And here are my powerpoint slide:

IS THERE STILL HOPE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA? -- a development science essay

2021年11月04日 Guestbook

This is my work for a project (topic self-selected) in my economic lesson. Interested in development science, I decided to choose the topic of Africa development. After a two-week research, I finally finished this essay.

QUESTION: AFRICA HAS OFTEN BEEN DESCRIBED AS THE ‘SHACKLED CONTINENT’. IS THERE STILL HOPE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA?

FANG Ziyan
Nanjing Foreign Language School

1.Introduction

Three decades of effort on development in Africa has yielded pitiful returns, which accord with its title of ‘the imprisoned continent’[ Guest, R. (2010). The shackled continent: Power, corruption, and African lives. Smithsonian Institution.]. African economies have been stagnating, even regressing. As Chart 1A shows, the GDP per capita of Africa levelled off at about $800 before 2002, then went through steady growth and peaked at $2200 in 2014, and then showed a downward trend and ended at $1800 in 2018. The GDP has always been the lowest, or near the lowest, amongst all the continents. Map B illustrates that in 2018, European countries and North American countries had a GDP of between 1 and 5 trillion US dollars. However, there was no country in Africa whose GDP is above 0.25 trillion. Additionally, it can be seen from Chart 1C that the balance of payments (BOP) of African countries has been close to zero in the first fifteen years, followed by a large fluctuation and long-term deficit, indicating that the economy was struggling.

This article will explore the factors that have hindered the economic development of Africa in the past, examining whether they will always hold Africa back, ultimately finding that there is hope for the continent.

Chart 1A GDP per capita of Africa, from 1991 to 2018

Map 1B Global GDP in 2018 (current US$)

Chart 1C BOP of all African countries, from 1991 to 2018

(source from World Bank)

2. Analysis of the economic situation in Africa

2.1 Why has economic development been so poor?

Donald Kaberuka, who served as the president of the African Development Bank, pointed out several main factors that could be referred to explain the failure of the development in Africa.[ Donald Kaberuka. “The African Economy Fifty Years After Independence - AfDB President Donald Kaberuka.” African Development Bank Group, October 4, 2007. https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/the-african-economy-fifty-years-after-independence-afdb-president-donald-kaberuka-11311.] Undeniably, geographic and environmental drawbacks are key factors contributing to the failure, such as the high concentration of landlocked countries, tropical soils, and epidemics. However, according to Kaberuka, these factors are not decisive. The factors more crucial are the history, politics, and economy of African countries.

From the mid-15th century to the 1980s, many African countries were colonies. The colonists took resources but did not leave behind the core technology and high-end local human resources. There were also few complete production chains and industrial structures designed according to the characteristics of the colonies, triggering a series of post-independence problems.[ 舒运国. (2020). 试析独立后非洲国家经济发展的主要矛盾. 西亚非洲, No.271(02), 93-112.]

In terms of politics, ethnic and border conflicts left from colonial rule triggered wars between neighbouring countries[ Dodo, M. K. (2018). Why is Africa Lagging Behind in Economic Development? A Critical Review. Journal of Asia Pacific Studies, 5(1).]. From the 1960s to the end of the 1980s, each year there were on average 12 border conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa, directly leading to about 17000 fatalities.[Resolving African Boundary Disputes. (2018, March 20). Retrieved Oct 27, 2021, from https://energycapitalpower.com/resolving-boundary-disputes-in-africa/] Meanwhile, terrorism spread, such as the “Kobo Haram” in Nigeria and the “Shabaab” in Somalia, leading to multi-party internal fighting and social instability. According to the 2012 Global Terrorism Index Report released by the Institute for Economic and Peace Research, sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the most serious threat of terrorism around the globe.

As for the economic structure, the economic lifeline of a number of large African industries is in the hands of foreigners, such as major oil companies including Mobil, BP, CITRON, Eni, and Total. Even if there are indeed local African giants, such as the De Beers mining industry and MTN telecommunications, their true controllers are still British, American, and French. This may be related to the nationality of their founders, the source of funding, and the location of consumers.

2.2 Effects of these factors

Undoubtedly, political turmoil would negatively impact African economic growth, as it might prolong production time and reduce commodity quality, resulting in a decrease in international competitiveness. Meanwhile, the uncertainty is also likely to worsen investor confidence and hence lead to falling in the aggregate demand; capital flight might also occur, which contributes to both saving gap and foreign currency gap, and therefore restrict local economic growth. For those countries suffering from civil wars or wars with neighbouring countries, the situation could even be worse. Wars not only cause damage to both human and physical capital, but also force policymakers to spend money on weapons and armies instead of investing in businesses, education, or healthcare. An outflow of economically motivated migrants might occur as well, which is known as a ‘brain drain’, leading to skill shortages and consequently worsening the economic development.

As for economic structure, years of colonization have left African countries with incomplete industrial chains, most of which still rely on a single industry and export-led growth. According to the African countries’ export commodities statistics (2015) published by the African Development Bank, there were 21 countries (39% of the total number of African countries) whose export of one product accounted for more than 50% of the total export volume. Meanwhile, from Chart 2A it can be noted that the share of raw material in exports of Sub-Saharan Africa fluctuated between 30% to 60% from 1990 to 2015, but was often the highest one among all world regions, and was always greater than the world average value of about 10%.

Chart 2A Share of raw materials in exports, by world region, 1990–2015

(Source: African Development Bank statistics and World Bank World Development Indicators and World Integrated Trade Statistics)

Nigeria is a typical example of these single-industry and export-led African countries. It experienced a recession in 2015-2016, whilst its government stated that the major inducing factor was the decline in oil revenues and the over-dependence of the economy on this single commodity[ Source from http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2016/09/fg-plansfiscal-stimulus-strategy-to-inject-15bn-in-ailing-economy/]. According to the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis[ Toye, J. F., & Toye, R. (2003). The origins and interpretation of the Prebisch-Singer thesis. History of political Economy, 35(3), 437-467.], the demand for primary products is less income-elastic than that for manufactured goods. That is to say, as incomes rise, the demand for manufactured goods increases more rapidly than the demand for primary products. Meanwhile, a decline in commodity prices tends to reduce revenue rather than increase it, which can be noted in graph 2B. This explains why, despite being an export-led economy, Nigeria’s current account of the balance of trade has been negative in recent years. Chart 2C shows the export and import of merchandise in Nigeria. Slow increases in both export and import can be witnessed before 2008, then they experienced a fluctuation and ended at 57 billion (import) and 35 billion (export) in 2020. However, it is notable that, during this period, the value of import is always above that of the export. In other words, the net export (X-M) of Nigeria has always been negative in recent decades, and its value has constantly worsened. Net export is a key factor of the current account.

As the net export (X-M) is also a component of aggregate demand (AD), a negative net export also represents a fall in AD, hence the economic growth is worsened. Meanwhile, the collapse in oil prices reduces confidence, leading to declining foreign direct investment from $9.7 billion by the end of the second quarter 2014, to $0.64 billion at the end of the second quarter of 20164, which might further harm local economic growth: a 1.62% fall of the annual GDP in of Nigeria was witnessed in the 2015-2016 period.

Graph 2B

Chart 2C Merchandise exports and imports from 1960 to 2020 (current US$) -Nigeria

(source from World Bank)

3. So, is there hope?

There is still hope for economic development in Africa; so long as the factors which are dragging down its economic development are overcome; the future is promising.

3.1 Ways to aid Africa

It is an undeniable fact that for years, developed countries have been consistently offering aid to help Africa develop. However, as mentioned, the local economy has not actually improved much as a result; in the past 60 years, at least $1 trillion of foreign aid has flowed into Africa, but today Africa’s real per capita income is lower than that of the 1970s. According to Dambisa Moyo, this is because donors have ignored the fact that many of the receivers do not have effective investment and taxation systems. For instance, part of the direct aid actually fell into the hands of corrupt bureaucrats and entered the consumption field, instead of the investment one.[ Moyo, D. (2009). Dead aid: Why aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa. Macmillan.] This increased AD, leading to soaring prices and the emergence of inflation.

On the other hand, new forms of aid offered by emerging countries such as China in recent years are seemly more practical and feasible[ Campbell, H. (2008). China in Africa: challenging US global hegemony. Third World Quarterly, 29(1), 89-105.]. For instance, China invests in the construction of African infrastructure, in return for natural resources, such as rare metals, and the right to use ports. This win-win cooperation not only helps Africa develop, but also offers China benefits. Furthermore, capital inflows from China have also eased the capital outflows of African countries caused by Western investor profit remittances and international debt. Simultaneously, by investing in the real economy, China has partially solved the problem of disconnection between the financial and production sectors in the African economy.9 For instance, the local employment driven by infrastructure projects of the China Railway 20th Bureau in Africa has brought long-term productivity improvements[ Brautigam, D. (2011). The dragon’s gift: the real story of China in Africa. OUP Oxford.], improving its potential economic growth. Nevertheless, there are still some shortcomings of this aid project. For example, it was found that in reality, politically privileged regions (like the birthplace of leaders) benefit more from the aid than others. In this regard, China should refer to other aid projects that are more evenly distributed, such as the ones of the World Bank.[ Bluhm, R., Dreher, A., Fuchs, A., Parks, B., Strange, A., & Tierney, M. J. (2018). Connective financing: Chinese infrastructure projects and the diffusion of economic activity in developing countries.]

3.2 From the inside

What African countries need is not only various types of assistance, but also effort from the inside. For instance, expenditure-reducing policies could be used to reduce CAD in countries such as Nigeria. Expenditure-reducing policies include contractionary fiscal policies like increasing taxes and reducing government spending, as well as contractionary monetary policies such as increasing interest rates and reducing the supply of money. As a consequence, Nigerian households will be more willing to save money rather than spend money, hence the consumption of imports decreases. Meanwhile, the expenditure-reducing policies can also reduce demand-pull inflation, enhancing the price competitiveness of Nigerian exports, and leading to more exports sold. Consequently, X-M increases, and CAD is improved. However, these expenditure-reducing policies will inevitably reduce aggregate demand, hence a fall in Nigeria’s economic growth and an increase in unemployment. In addition, the effect would depend on the magnitude of the increase in the interest rate as well as Nigeria’s marginal propensity to import.

Some supply-side policies can also be implemented to improve their international competitiveness. For instance, reducing corporation tax, regulation and red tape would eliminate the cost of production and hence increase firms’ profit, giving them more incentive to invest in the R&D of new products. Meanwhile, local government can also provide more education and training, in other words, invest more in human capital, which helps increase productivity and also increase the occupational mobility of labour. However, it is notable that these supply-side policies would take a relatively long time to have a significant effect on the current account even if it were possible to achieve. Meanwhile, supply-side policies might involve extra public expenditure, which could contribute to the government deficit.

In the long run, establishing and improving their own economic system would be a great way for African countries to get rid of the control and influence of other countries. To be specific, they can develop secondary and tertiary industries to diversify and strengthen local economies. 6 The development of secondary industry includes industrialization, the process of transforming an economy from one that is based on agriculture to one that is based on the manufacturing of goods and other industrial activity, which improves the marginal productivity and is essential for economic growth in these developing countries (Lewis, 1955). As for the tertiary industry, developing tourism might be a great chance for those countries with special climates and geography. Tourism provides funds and attracts investments, improving residents’ living standards. Meanwhile, the income-elastic nature of tourism means that as the global economy grows, demand for the industry will increase even further, allowing the developing country to continue development. In fact, countries including Morocco, Egypt and South Africa have already benefited a lot from the tourism industry, which other countries can imitate or learn from.[ The High 5s – Tourism as a Pathway to Industrialization, Integration, Quality of Life, Agriculture, and Powering Up Africa. (2018). Africa Tourism Monitor, 5(1).] Overall, it is estimated that shifts in employment from lower to higher productivity sectors have already added about 1% to productivity growth across the region since 2000, rising as high as 4% for Rwanda, and 2-3% for Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda,13 which means a great improvement in the international competitiveness of Africa and could contribute to its economic development.

Last but not least, in terms of structural factors such as geography and ecology, though the physical environment of Africa cannot be changed, some mitigation and adaptation methods should also be carried out. Rapid population growth has strained croplands and contributes to deforestation, putting pressure on the ability of the region to adapt to climate change and the fragile ecology of the dry lands[ Brahmbhatt M, Bishop R, Zhao X, et al. Africa’s New Climate Economy: Economic Transformation and Social and Environmental Change. London and Washington, DC.: New Climate Economy and Overseas Development Institute., 2016. http://newclimateeconomy.report/workingpapers/.]. According to Africa’s New Climate Economy(2016), to address this issue, African countries should invest in research and development of climate-smart farming practices, such as developing more drought-resistant crop varieties and better practices for soil, water and nutrient management; or planting trees on farmland (“agroforestry”), which not only provide valuable products such as fruit and timber, but they also help to hold and restore soils, retain water, provide windbreaks, and aid in carbon sequestration. These efforts on farming innovations will improve productivity and raise farmers’ incomes, and at the same time, they can help reduce environmental degradation and strengthen resilience to climate change. Another measure is to implement the energy transition, investing in renewable energy generation and improving energy efficiency, so as to provide access to the 620 million people who currently lack it and improve long term economic growth. In short, strategies which recognize the close links between economic, social and environmental priorities are helpful in the long run.

4. Conclusion

Ultimately, although many factors have hindered economic development in Africa, there is still hope. Notably, while there are solutions to the problems in theory, their implementation is by no means an easy task. The primary economic structure has taken root in African countries for a long time. It is not easy to carry out the transformation which requires sufficient technology and a large amount of capital. The settlement of social turmoil and national conflict cannot be accomplished overnight as well. Similarly, the geographical issues cannot be completely resolved in the short term.

Nevertheless, it is an undeniable fact that many countries and organizations are contributing to the development of Africa by improving aid projects or development policies. Meanwhile, the efforts made by African countries themselves are also worthy of praise. They have been boosting more prudent fiscal and monetary policies, external debt relief, and more pro-poor public spending. Governance has also become more participatory and accountable on the whole. Hence to summarize, the future looks bright.

Bibliography

[1]Guest, R. (2010). The shackled continent: Power, corruption, and African lives. Smithsonian Institution.

[2] Donald Kaberuka. “The African Economy Fifty Years After Independence - AfDB President Donald Kaberuka.” African Development Bank Group, October 4, 2007. https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/the-african-economy-fifty-years-after-independence-afdb-president-donald-kaberuka-11311.

[3]舒运国. (2020). 试析独立后非洲国家经济发展的主要矛盾. 西亚非洲, No.271(02), 93-112.

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Geography-Related Literature Comparasion

2021年10月08日 Guestbook

Authors use the geographic perspective when crafting writing, stories, or other frictional works. The relationship between people and their natural and constructed environments is often a key part of a story’s plot, theme, or setting. In some books, there will be a large number of descriptions of the natural environment, and some books are even based on the exploration of nature as a plot clue. Deeply fascinated by these books, I would like to explore their individual and common features, as well as how their authors express clearly and perfectly through words about those deep and touching themes they want to share.

I read two novels during the summer holiday, both of which are closely related to geography. Personally I consider them as typical of geography novels. In the following paragraphs, I would like to share my views on the two books, attempting to sum up the common features of novels of this kind.

I.Earth Science Novels

To begin with, I re-read Jules Verne’s Trilogy( Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in Eighty Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas) - it is also them which were my earth science initiation reads that left a lasting impression on me. I consider them as the typical of novels related to earth science, including adventure, science fiction, etc. Apparently, these compositions are characterised by a combination of imagination and modern science, and to some reflect reality to a certain extent.

①First of all, they were written under a background of the Second Industrial Revolution and colonial expansion, backed up by enormous industrial achievements, which, combined with Mr Verne’s magnificent imagination, made these works both realistic and prophetic of the future. For instance, before Verne, a few authors had already tried writing subterranean fictions. However, thanks to his thorough study of Victorian science, Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth is considered as an outstanding one among all this type of book – his concept of a prehistoric realm (which is going to be introduced in detail in the following paragraph) still existing in the present-day world.

Another example of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas could also be used to support this argument: the diving gear used by passengers on the Nautilus is presented as a combination of two existing systems: 1) the surface-supplied hardhat suit, which was fed oxygen from the shore through tubes; 2) a later, self-contained apparatus designed by Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze in 1865. Their invention featured tanks fastened to the back, which supplied air to a facial mask via the first-known demand regulator. The diver didn’t swim but walked upright across the seafloor. This device was called an aérophore (Greek for “air-carrier”). Its air tanks could hold only thirty atmospheres, however Nemo claims that his futuristic adaptation could do far better: “The Nautilus’s pumps allow me to store air under considerable pressure … my diving equipment can supply breathable air for nine or ten hours.”

②Second, Verne refers to many achievements of the Industrial Revolution and natural science research in his works, integrating these esoteric inventive principles into the colorful storyline, making the extensive study of natural sciences live and popularize. For example, in Journey to the Center of the Earth, there is a genuine underground world which is filled by a deep subterranean ocean, with a rocky coastline covered by petrified tree trunks, the fossils of prehistoric mammals, and gigantic living mushrooms. It is also in the book that Verne discussed the possibility of reaching the center of the earth based on geological theories. Meanwhile, he also introduced us a variety of geological knowledge during the interaction of protagonists, including rocks and rock formations, pressure, volcanoes and so on.

③Third, from the perspective of plot, these compositions are often about travel and adventure, which is inseparable from the influence of the Age of Sail and Discovery. The protagonists’ courage to take risks, pioneer the wilderness, and conquer nature has inspired generations of readers, including me.

The characters in the novel have their own features. For instance, Nemo in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is an eccentric, knowledgeable, calm and resourceful captain; Professor Aronnax has an unlimited passion for scientific inquiry; while the whaler Nederland has a fiery and straightforward temperament. In Journey to the Center of the Earth, there is Professor Otto Lidenbrock, a hot-tempered geologist with radical ideas; Axel, a cautious young student; and Hans Bjelke, their resourceful and imperturbable guide. In Around the World in Eighty Days, the British gentleman Mr. Falk is as cool as a cucumber – despite the difficulties encountered during the journey, he never complains.

Besides the distinct personalities, they also have a lot in common. First of all, they are very humanitarian and attach great importance to friendship. For instance, Mr. Falk spent a lot of precious time saving unknown women and insignificant servants, who also helped him later. Captain Nemo wrestles with sharks to rescue pearl divers; he also tearfully buries his dead companion under the reef. What’s more, they all have a strong spirit of exploration and have always adhered to their beliefs. Even if goals seem impossible to achieve, they never give up.

④Last but not least, social systems, the two-sided effects of the Industrial Revolution, political revolution, etc. were also mentioned in these compostions. Through them, Verne aimed to provoke people to reflect on the society. Of course, as popular science writer, he used more descriptive than direct evaluation or satire, so as to present the lifelike social reality to readers. The most impressive example would be the identity of Captain Nemo, which was revealed in Verne’s later novel, The Mysterious Land. Born as an East Indian aristocrat, one Prince Dakkar, Nemo participated in a major 19th century uprising, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which was ultimately quashed by the British. After his family were killed by the British, Nemo fled beneath the seas.

II. Human Geography Novels

The second book I read was Chi Zijian’s “The Right Bank of the Erguna River“(额尔古纳河右岸). This is a representative of a humanistic and geographical novel. From the perspective of a 90-year-old Evenk woman who is recounting her life experience, the book reflects the development of the Evenk people in the past hundred years. This nation lived peacefully in the forest, flourished under the grace and torture of nature. In the last century, they suffered Japan’s invasion and the Cultural Revolution. Currently, under the “invasion” of civilization, they had to wander between nomadism and settlement, facing a danger of losing their own culture… With a calm and gentle narrative style and ethereal language, the writer Chi Zijian recreates us the hundred-year persistence of life of the Evenk people and cultural changes they have experienced.

Many people consider this work as an epic elegy of a nation, while personally I think that it is also an elegy about a certain kind of wonderful life, an elegy about a certain kind of values and ways of life of human beings. In the book, people look up at the sky, respect rivers and mountains, admire the gods in their hearts, sing simple but beautiful songs, born in the “sound of the wind”, and finally buried in the wind. In addition to the image as the main character, what also touching and moving is the changing white clouds, the twinkling starlight, the Shilen Pillar, the reindeer, the moon, the Shaman’s dance, the birch and pine trees, and the bright flowing water…… They are not only the background and basis of the characters’ lives, but also the other protagonists in the book. Together, they constitute a beautiful and fragile world, a mixture of joy and suffering, of sadness and happiness.

I greatly appreciate Ms. Chi Zijian’s writing, her way of expression is pure and gentle as the snow in the north, which largely fits the style of story she depicts. Of course, as just mentioned, the description of the natural environment in the book makes this novel even more gripping.

Interestingly, there are comments on the Internet that this book is very similar to Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude“, which is also a book that I always appreciate. It tells about the faces of the mountains, rivers, seas, continents, animals, plants, religious peoples and peoples of the Latin American. Through the fictionalization of the century-long rise and fall of a family, it integrates historical reality and fantasy, interprets the history and destiny of Colombia and even the entire Latin American continent for a century in an epic and magnificent way. In the colorful giant picture, there are not only incredible miracles, but also purest real life. From my perspective, I consider these two books as both the pinnacle of the geographical novels and the jewel of human literature as a whole.

Conclusion

To summarise, all geography-related novels closely combine their plot with the depiction of the natural environment. Through popular science novels, readers can appreciate a lot of science and technology; in cultural novels, there are a great number of descriptions of society and characters’ mind. These novels all discuss the relationship between man and nature, inspiring our enthusiasm for exploring nature or gratitude for it. They also look down on human civilization from the perspective of nature, which not only gives readers a refreshing reading experience, but also provokes us to think deeply.

Review of "A Story of Mankind"

2021年08月08日 Guestbook

“Why should we ever read fairy stories, when the truth of history is so much more interesting and entertaining?”

During the reading, I feel myself standing on the top of a mountain, with changes and changes of thousands of years under my feet just as passing clouds. Like a stage speaker, Von Loon spoke in soulful tones about the human world’s past and present in this book. He sighed over the destruction of a city, saddened by the barbarians’ trampling on civilization, and cried out for the tragic misfortune of civilians time and time again.

Just as the writer said, when we re-examine the past stories as bystanders, there is neither the flawlessness of winners, nor the uselessness of losers. Instead, vivid characters and episodes of ups and downs compose the history. There are too many impressive plots, some of which even subvert my previous stereotype of history: Christianity was suppressed, just because the believers were dissatisfied with the situation of citizen’s freedom of religion at the time, and tried to make Christianity the only belief of people; in order to realize his dream of becoming a religion leader, Muhammad even married a noble widowhood; after the end of war between Greece and Persia, Athens and Sparta, who had shared a bitter hatred of the enemy, did not take this opportunity to resolve their long-standing grievances. The civil war between the two city-states eventually led to the decline of Greece.

Besides the knowledge, this peculiar book, just as what the “Little History of the World” I read did months ago, once again corrected my prejudices against the “history book”. For example, I used to think that history books are those which list various events in chronological order. But Van Loon was more like telling a story in this book. He focused on the relationship between events and the impact of them on the current world.In addition, I used to think that history books are always written in boring languages and simply display historical facts to the readers. But Van Loon turned these boring events into beautiful stories. He never just described them simply and straightforwardly, instead he often guided readers into the context of history through imaginative descriptions.

“The Story of Mankind” is not a simple history book. It contains Van Loon’s profound thinking about the past and present, and his infinite hope for a better future of mankind. As the famous scholar Qian Mansu said, Van Loon “is not an esoteric theorist, but not necessarily don’t have his own ideology and ideas.” The topics he chose are basically about the most essential issue of human survival and development. What’s more, he showed his belief of the importance of rationality and tolerance in his compositions. “His goal is to challenge the ignorance and paranoia. The way he adopts is to popularize knowledge and truth, and make them common sense.”